USAfrica: Lupita Nyongo’s redefinition of beauty

USAfrica: Lupita Nyongo’s redefinition of beauty

By Adaeze G. Nwangwu

Exclusive & Special commentary to USAfricaonline.com, CLASSmagazine,  and USAfrica multimedia networks, Houston. Follow Twitter.com/Chido247,  Facebook.com/USAfricaChido

USAfrica: The popular saying “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder” fuels the general belief that beauty is aesthetic and mostly perceived as a conformity to a stereotype. For those, it is made up of artificial accessories used to enhance the illusion of beauty especially among our sisters with darker skin. Essentially, there are million of folks for whom physical appearance is not reality but is transient and fleeting.

First time Oscar winner, the actor Lupita Nyong’o, like some great women of African ancestry, is in 2014 representative of the redefinition of beauty  — especially, in a time where the standards of “whiteness”, bleaching and light skin are predominant. Lupita has shown that true beauty can be black and can go beyond the skin “complexes” of certain women and men of African heritage. She’s re-establishing the historical fact that beauty is not skin deep or color but the epitome of a beautiful soul.

Without  a doubt, Lupita who is Kenyan is drawing attention away from the Euro-caucasian standards of beauty, breaking the color barrier that has acted as a limiting factor to all women of color, worldwide.

These illusions of beauty made up of artificial extensions and bleaching are an imposed culture, a culture handed to us by ‘our colonial masters’ to underscore  the part they played in those colonial days and, to my own thinking, water down the pure royalty and grace that seemed to intimidate them, while we ignorantly, still, play along; forgetting our roots and the power in it.

Not to heap all the blame conveniently on these ‘colonial masters’, we also share in this blame where we passively allow ourselves to be brainwashed and exploited because millions of women of African-descent across the world are too lazy, timid and lack the courage to take a stand like our sister Lupita has done by just being herself and natural, no extensions, no skin lightening or even plastic surgery for her to “correct a mistake” she may think God (even in His infinite wisdom) may have made in her creation. None. Nada!

Lupita has brought the saying “Black is beautiful” back to life again and this time it is graceful as well as vehement. It is liberating not only Africans but Blacks in general from their “inferiority complex” and colonial mindsets about beauty and self esteem but correcting the erroneous impression that one is ugly if one is Black.

When one does not conform to standards laid down by the overlords in the world and society as regarding beauty, it is termed as ugly, inadequate, queer or weird. Lupita strives to break this monotony, to encourage one to look deeper beyond the skin to discover more lasting beauty that will inadvertently bring peace with oneself and the society at large.

Beauty is a state of mind. An attitude you can or may call it. It is our responsibility to find our beauty within and feel it, and in doing this, get others to also see it in us. Inner beauty, the beauty of the soul, is the sermon Lupita is preaching here.

Everyone wants to be a part of the majority, forgetting that God has deposited in us an inherent gift of beauty that we just have to find with a little effort. This gift could be physical, intellectual or spiritual. What really matters is what use we put these gifts to.

We all hail Lupita, not only for her dark skin and beautiful physical features but mostly for her spirit and intellect which like she said in her speech on Beauty, “There is no shade to that (inner) beauty”. When there is no true inner beauty, no matter how physically perfect one is, one cannot make any positive impact on others as illustrated by my Aro heritage (African) proverb that says: “He who thinks he is leading and has no one following him, is only taking a walk.”

In our society today, a little difference in outlook and appearance can cause us to be termed as ‘ugly’, by the same society comprised of our parents, teachers and peers alike. Just like in the children’s story, the ugly duckling, they will exercise no patience to discover what else we have to offer apart from the obvious. It takes a little time, effort and strength of character to break out of this conformity and discover the potential that will launch us into that beauty and greatness.

True beauty is made up of integrity, self worth, confidence, humility, selflessness, courage, kindness and above all the love for and fear of God. Until we find these virtues we cannot be truly comfortable or confident in our skins, ourselves and our circumstances.

Lupita has discovered hers and at the same time is putting hers to use, thereby creating that comfort and confidence in her skin and herself that was lying dormant, and now carrying us along in fulfilling her destiny.          •Adaeze Nwangwu, based in Nigeria, is a special correspondent of USAfrica multimedia networks, and CLASSmagazine, Houston.

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Nigeria’s Federal Republic of Insecurity. By Chido Nwangwu, Publisher of USAfrica, USAfricaonline.com and the Nigeria360 e-group. https://usafricaonline.com/2011/12/17/nigeria-federal-republic-of-insecurity-by-chido-nwangwu/ : IF any of the Nigerian President’s 100 advisers has the polite courage for the extraordinary task of reminding His Excellency of his foremost, sworn, constitutional obligation to the national interest about security and safety of Nigerians and all who sojourn in Nigeria, please whisper clearly to Mr. President that I said, respectfully: Nigerians, at home and abroad, are still concerned and afraid for living in what I call Nigeria’s Federal Republic of Insecurity. FULL text of commentary at USAfricaonline.com https://usafricaonline.com/2011/12/17/nigeria-federal-republic-of-insecurity-by-chido-nwangwu/ •Dr. Chido Nwangwu, moderator of the Achebe Colloquium

(Governance, Security, and Peace in Africa) December 7-8, 2012 at Brown University in Rhode Island and former adviser on Africa business/issues to the Mayor of Houston, is the Founder & Publisher of Houston-based USAfrica multimedia networks since 1992, first African-owned, U.S-based newspaper published on the internet USAfricaonline.com; CLASSmagazine, AchebeBooks.com, the USAfrica-powered e-groups of AfricanChristians, Nigeria360, IgboEvents, UNNalumni, and the pictorials site PhotoWorks.TV .  He is completing a book titled Nelson Mandela and Chinua Achebe: Footprints of Greatness. He has been profiled by the CNN International for his pioneering works on multimedia/news/public policy projects for Africans and Americans.     http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/international/2010/07/29/mpa.african.media.bk.a.cnn

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WHY I CELEBRATE THE LIFE AND WORKS OF NELSON MANDELA. By Chido Nwangwu  https://usafricaonline.com/2010/07/15/mandela-why-i-celebrate-his-life-works-by-chido-nwangwu/

and friendship hold lessons for humanity and Africans, the author Chido Nwangwu takes a measure of their works and consequence to write that Mandela and Achebe have left “footprints of greatness.”

He chronicles, movingly, his 1998 reporting from the Robben Island jail room in South Africa where Mandela was held for decades through his 20 years of being close to Achebe. He moderated the 2012 Achebe Colloquium at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.”I’ll forever remember having walked inside and peeped through that historic Mandela jail cell (where he was held for most of his 27 years in unjust imprisonment) at the dreaded Robben Island, on March 27, 1998, alongside then Editor-in-chief of TIME magazine and later news chief executive of the CNN, Walter Isaacson (and others) when President Bill Clinton made his first official trip to South Africa and came to Robben Island. Come to this island of scourge and you will understand, in part, the simple greatness and towering grace of Nelson Mandela”, notes  Chido Nwangwu, award-winning writer, multimedia specialist and founder of USAfricaonline.com, the first African-owned U.S-based newspaper published on the internet, in his first book; he writes movingly from his 1998 reporting from South Africa on Mandela. http://www.mandelaachebechido.com/